Meade ETX 70 First Impressions

I've looked through a nagler once, and it felt as though I was falling into the eyepiece. Comparing these things to normal eyepieces is like comparing a TV to an IMAX theater! Once of these days I'll splash out on one.

The view is pretty good alright. I've two at this stage (9mm T1 and 17mm T4 - both picked up on astromart cause I couldn't afford new ones) and as a result I very rarely use my box of meade plosssls any more. Needless to say there is a difference between the naglers and plossls. However, on a scope costing way less than €100, they might be just a little bit overkill!

In general however, the eyepieces offered now by Meade and Celestron are good value for money, expecially the ones offered by both Meade and Celestron in their eyepiece kits.

Clear skies,

Once of these days I'll splash out on one.

Al - splash out on a Denkmeir and *two* naglers :shock:

I thought the meade eyepieces supplied with the ETX70 were actually of reasonably good quality. As you say, the bottom of Meade's barrel is not that bad in reality...

And BTW - good advice about using the binocular guide instead of the observer challenge - I hadn't considered that :oops:

Michael - overkill? Naaah - just get the Nagler then upgrade the scope!
Dave

When I was out with the ETX during the week, I found that the 15mm 4000 series plossl was the most enjoyable eyepiece for me on the scope, but then again its my favourite on the 12 " also.

The eyepieces supplied are better then the skylux eyepieces, or atleast the ones I saw through last year, when we put the 4000s opn the slylux, there was a serious differance, where as with the ETX eyepieces, it was just sharper!
But then again you have to be fair, you must keep the price in mind here, we're really not comparing like with like.

BTW, green/yellow chromatic (colour) abberation is about as bad as it gets for this type of distortion, but I didnt notice any real problem when looking at saturn or stars ?

When I was out with the ETX during the week, I found that the 15mm 4000 series plossl was the most enjoyable eyepiece for me on the scope, but then again its my favourite on the 12 " also

I agree, this is my first scope but already the 15mm is my eyepiece of choice. The 4mm seems to be pretty hard on the eyes.......blurry, poor contrast etc.....

I'm new to refractors so I'm looking forward to a psychedelic viewing session!

try lookin at the moon with your eye at an angle to the eyepiece. Purple haze baby!....need i say more :shock:

Spent at least 2 hours observing last night, even with a more or less full moon it was very enjoyable, got to grips with the 2 star align method and spent the night going through the guided tour, selecting stars, looking at the moon and other objects, this telescope seems to track very well, I liked the wide field view of the Pleiades with a 25mm plossl, its been a long time since I have had such an interseting night's viewing, last time was when I identified 16 or 17 Galaxies in Leo with my dob, one thing for sure, I am taken by this telescope & have taken Daves advice, ordered 3 Meade series 4000 eyepieces & the extension focuser from the states, wonder if I can get a cheap flight there to buy the 125mm ETX
This telescope is a winner and while it cant replace my larger Dobsonian it should increase my knowledge of the night sky and get me back out there observing and that cant be bad, wonder if any other Cork people got one of these ? I will bring mine to the club outing to Schull on Saturday if there are any places left
Charles Coughlan

Charles,
I hope you enjoy the new eyepieces, they'd be good enough for almost any telescope, I find the 15mm 4000series plossel a very nice eyepiece, when looking at the moon its just seemed sharper and abit more luminous, maybe not as dulled?, its hard to describe.